Focal pulmonary edema after massive pulmonary embolism.

We report here the occurrence of focal pulmonary edema within 4 h after massive acute pulmonary embolism. The edema appeared to develop only in areas with intact pulmonary arterial blood flow and occurred in the apparent absence of left ventricular dysfunction. This pattern of pulmonary edema after precapillary obstruction is similar to that seen in animal models of permeability pulmonary edema induced by acute nonuniform pulmonary arterial obstruction.